Wealth and Inheritance (in the Long Run)

Thomas Piketty

Paris School of Economics

Handbook of Income Distribution Conference April 6th 2013

• This chapter: how do wealth-income and inheritance-income ratios evolve in the long run, and why?

• There are two ways to become rich: either through one’s own work, or through inheritance

• In Ancien Regime societies, as well as in 19C and early 20C, it was obvious to everybody that the inheritance channel was important

• Inheritance and successors were everywhere in the 19C literature: Balzac, Jane Austen, etc.

• Inheritance flows were huge not only in novels; but also in 19C tax data: major economic, social and political issue

• Question: Does inheritance belong to the past? Did modern growth kill the inheritance channel? E.g. due to the natural rise of human capital and meritocracy?

• This chapter answers « NO » to this question: I find that inherited wealth will probably play as big a role in 21C capitalism as it did in 19C capitalism

• Key mechanism if low growth g and r > g

• Chapter based upon: - literature survey (Kotlikoff-Summers-Modigliani controvery during 1980s-1990s, etc.)

- new work: • « On the long-run evolution of inheritance: France 1820-

2050 », QJE 2011 • « Inherited vs self-made wealth: theory & evidence from a

rentier society » (with Postel-Vinay & Rosenthal, 2011)• « Capital is back: wealth-income ratios in rich countries

1700-2010 » (with Zucman, 2013)• On-going work on other countries: • « Wealth & inheritance in Britain from 1896 to the present »

(Atkinson, 2012) • « Inheritance in Germany 1911-2009 : a Mortality Multiplier

Approach »  (Schinke, 2012) • Sweden (Roine-Waldenstrom); US (Alvaredo); etc.

Figure 1: Annual inheritance flow as a fraction of national income, France 1820-2008

0%

4%

8%

12%

16%

20%

24%

28%

32%

36%

40%

1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Economic flow (computed from national wealth estimates, mortalitytables and observed age-wealth profiles)

Fiscal flow (computed from observed bequest and gift tax data, inc.tax exempt assets)

Figure 2: Annual inheritance flow as a fraction of disposable income, France 1820-2008

0%

4%

8%

12%

16%

20%

24%

28%

32%

36%

40%

1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Economic flow (computed from national wealth estimates,mortality tables and observed age-wealth profiles)Fiscal flow (computed from observed bequest and gift tax data,inc. tax exempt assets)

• An annual inheritance flow around 20%-25% of disposable income is a very large flow

• E.g. it is much larger than the annual flow of new savings (typically around 10%-15% of disposable income), which itself comes in part from the return to inheritance (it’s easier to save if you have inherited your house & have no rent to pay)

• An annual inheritance flow around 20%-25% of disposable income means that total, cumulated inherited wealth represents the vast majority of aggregate wealth (typically above 80%-90% of aggregate wealth), and vastly dominates self-made wealth

• Main lesson: with g low & r>g, inheritance is bound to dominate new wealth; the past eats up the future

g = growth rate of national income and output r = rate of return to wealth = (interest + dividend + rent + profits

+ capital gains etc.)/(net financial + real estate wealth) • Intuition: with r>g & g low (say r=4%-5% vs g=1%-2%)

(=19C & 21C), wealth coming from the past is being capitalized faster than growth; heirs just need to save a fraction g/r of the return to inherited wealth

• It is only in countries and time periods with g exceptionally high that self-made wealth dominates inherited wealth (Europe in 1950s-70s or China today)

This chapter: two issues

(1) The return of wealth (Be careful with « human capital » illusion: human k did not

replace old-style financial & real estate wealth)

(2) The return of inherited wealth(Be careful with « war of ages » illusion: the war of ages did not replace class war; inter-generational inequality did notreplace intra-generational inequality)

1. The return of wealth

• The « human capital » illusion: « in today’s modern economies, what matters is human capital and education, not old-style financial or real estate wealth »

• Technocractic model : Parsons, Galbraith, Becker (unidimensional class structure based upon human K)• But the share of old-style capital income (rent, interest,

dividend, etc.) in national income is the same in 2010 as in 1910 (about 30%), and the aggregate wealth-income ratio is also the same in 2010 as in 1910 (about 600%)

• Today in France, Italy, UK: β = W/Y ≈ 600%Per adult national income Y ≈ 35 000€Per adult private wealth W ≈ 200 000€ (wealth = financial assets + real estate assets – financial liabilities)(on average, households own wealth equal to about 6 years of income)

Wealth-income ratio in France 1820-2010

0%

100%

200%

300%

400%

500%

600%

700%

800%

900%

1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Aggregate private wealth as afraction of national income

The changing nature of national wealth, UK 1700-2010

0%

100%

200%

300%

400%

500%

600%

700%

800%

1700 1750 1810 1850 1880 1910 1920 1950 1970 1990 2010National wealth = agricultural land + housing + other domestic capital goods + net foreign assets

(% n

atio

nal

inco

me)

Net foreign assets

Other domestic capital

Housing

Agricultural land

The changing nature of national wealth, US 1770-2010

0%

100%

200%

300%

400%

500%

600%

1770 1810 1850 1880 1910 1920 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010

National wealth = agricultural land + housing + other domestic capital goods + net foreign assets

(% n

atio

nal

inco

me)

Net foreign assets

Other domestic capital

Housing

Agricultural land

What We Are Trying to Understand: The Rise in Private Wealth-National Income

Ratios, 1970-2010

From Private to National Wealth: Small and Declining Government Net

Wealth, 1970-2010

National vs. Foreign Wealth, 1970-2010 (% National Income)

1. An asset price effect: long run asset price recovery driven by changes in capital policies since world wars

1. A real economic effect: slowdown of productivity and pop growth:

– Harrod-Domar-Solow: wealth-income ratio β = s/g– If saving rate s = 10% and growth rate g = 3%, then

β ≈ 300%– But if s = 10% and g = 1.5%, then β ≈ 600%

How Can We Explain the 1970-2010 Evolution?

Countries with low g are bound to have high β. Strong effect in Europe, ultimately everywhere.

In very long run, limited role of asset price divergence

– In short/medium run, war destructions & valuation effects paramount

– But in the very long run, no significant divergence between price of consumption and capital goods

– Key long-run force is β = s/g

How Can We Explain Return to 19c Levels?

One sector model accounts reasonably well for long run dynamics & level differences Europe vs. US

BU: Bequest-in-utility-function model Max U(c,b)=c1-s bs (or Δbs)c = lifetime consumption, b = end-of-life wealth (bequest)s = bequest taste = saving rate → β = s/g

DM: Dynastic model: Max Σ U(ct)/(1+δ)t

→ r = δ +ρg , s = gα/r, β = α/r = s/g ( β ↑ as g ↓) ( U(c)=c1-ρ/(1-ρ) , F(K,L)=KαL1-α )

OLG model: low growth implies higher life-cycle savings

→ in all three models, β = s/g rises as g declines

Three models delivering the same result

• Low β in mid-20c were an anomaly– Anti-capital policies depressed asset prices– Unlikely to happen again with free markets– Who owns wealth will become again very important

• β can vary a lot between countries– s and g determined by different forces – With perfect markets: scope for very large net foreign

asset positions– With imperfect markets: domestic asset price bubbles

Lesson 1a: Capital is Back

High β raise new issues about capital regulation & taxation

• In 21st century: σ > 1– Rising β come with decline in average return to wealth r – But decline in r smaller than increase in β capital shares

α = rβ increaseConsistent with K/L elasticity of substitution σ > 1

• In 18th century: σ < 1– In 18c, K = mostly land– In land-scarce Old World, α ≈ 30%– In land-rich New World, α ≈ 15% Consistent with σ < 1: when low substitutability, α large

when K relatively scarce

Lesson 1b: The Changing Nature of Wealth and Technology

2. The return of inherited wealth

• In principle, one could very well observe a return of wealth without a return of inherited wealth

• I.e. it could be that the rise of aggregate wealth-income ratio is due mostly to the rise of life-cycle wealth (pension funds)

• Modigliani life-cycle theory: people save for their old days and die with zero wealth, so that inheritance flows are small

• However the Modigliani story happens to be partly wrong (except in the 1950s-60s, when there’s not much left to inherit…): pension wealth is a limited part of wealth (<5% in France… but 20% in the UK)

• Bequest flow-national income ratio B/Y = µ m W/Y(with m = mortality rate, µ = relative wealth of decedents)

• B/Y has almost returned to 1910 level, both because of W/Y and of µ

• Dynastic model: µ = (D-A)/H, m=1/(D-A), so that µ m = 1/H and B/Y = β/H (A = adulthood = 20, H = parenthood = 30, D =death = 60-80)• General saving model: with g low & r>g, B/Y → β/H → with β=600% & H=generation length=30 years, then

B/Y≈20%, i.e. annual inheritance flow ≈ 20% national income

Figure 10: Steady-state cross-sectional age-wealth profile in the dynastic model with demographic noise

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

180%

200%

A=20 25 H=30 35 I=40 45 50 55 60 65 D=70

(average wealth of agegroup)/(average wealth ofadults)

Figure 8: The ratio between average wealth of decedents and average wealth of the living in France 1820-2008

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

180%

200%

220%

240%

1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

excluding inter-vivos gifts

including inter-vivos gifts intodecedents' wealth

The share of inherited wealth in total wealth

• Modigliani AER 1986, JEP 1988: inheritance = 20% of total U.S. wealth

• Kotlikoff-Summers JPE 1981, JEP 1988: inheritance = 80% of total U.S. wealth

• Three problems with this controversy: - Bad data - We do not live in a stationary world: life-cycle wealth was

much more important in the 1950s-1970s than it is today- We do not live in a representative-agent world → new

definition of inherited share: partially capitalized inheritance (inheritance capitalized in the limit of today’s inheritor wealth)→ our findings show that the share of inherited wealth has

changed a lot over time, but that it is generally much closer to Kotlikoff-Summers (80%) than Modigliani (20%)

Figure S11.1. The share of inherited wealth in aggregate wealth, Paris 1872-1937

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

1872 1882 1912 1922 1927 1932 1937

Capitalized inherited wealth (KS1)(Kotlikoff-Summers, r=3%, 30yrs)

Partially capitalized inherited wealth(PPVR definition)

Non-capitalized inherited wealth(Modgliani)

Figure S11.2. The share of inherited wealth in aggregate wealth, Paris 1872-1937

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

300%

350%

400%

1872 1882 1912 1922 1927 1932 1937

Capitalized inheritance (Kotlikoff-Summers, observed r)

Capitalized inheritance (KS1) (Kotlikoff-Summers, r=3%, 30yrs)

Partically capitalized inheritance (PPVRinheritance)

Non-capitalized inheritance (Modgliani)

Figure S11.3. The share of inherited wealth in aggregate wealth, France 1850-2100 (2010-2100: g=1,7%, r=3,0%)

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050 2070 2090

Partially capitalized inheritance(PPVR definition)

Non-capitalized inheritance(Modigliani)

Figure S11.4. The share of inherited wealth in aggregate wealth, France 1850-2100 (2010-2100: g=1,7%, r=3,0%)

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

180%

200%

220%

240%

260%

1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050 2070 2090

Capitalized inheritance (KS1)(Kotlikoff-Summers, r=3%, 30yrs)

Partially capitalized inheritance(PPVR definition)

Non-capitalized inheritance(Modgliani)

Figure 11.12. The inheritance flow in Europe 1900-2010

0%

4%

8%

12%

16%

20%

24%

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

France

United Kingdom (Atkinson)

Germany (Schinke)

Back to distributional analysis: macro ratios determine who is the dominant social class

• 19C: top successors dominate top labor earners

→ rentier society (Balzac, Jane Austen, etc.)• For cohorts born in1910s-1950s, inheritance did not matter too

much → labor-based, meritocratic society• But for cohorts born in the 1970s-1980s & after, inheritance

matters a lot

→ 21c class structure will be intermediate between 19c rentier society than to 20c meritocratic society – and possibly closer to the former (more unequal in some dimens., less in others)

• The rise of human capital & meritocracy was an illusion .. especially with a labor-based tax system

What have we learned?

• A world with g low & r>g is gloomy for workers with zero initial wealth… especially if global tax competition drives capital taxes to 0%… especially if top labor incomes take a rising share of aggregate labor income

→ A world with g=1-2% (=long-run world technological frontier?) is not very different from a world with g=0% (Marx-Ricardo)

• From a r-vs-g viewpoint, 21c maybe not too different from 19c – but still better than Ancien Regime… except that nobody tried to depict AR as meritocratic…